CP-kmalkin

Much appreciated. thanks for your help. I may well leave them then.. will have to decide :) we will see what happens. And yeah you never know I may discover a new cross breed between neps and sundews loool :) thanks again

Just to add my 2 cents, when I first started I got all my plants from homebase/b&q and asda funnily enough, and I just transplanted them all straight away... They are all fine now thanks to a few pointers from everyone here. As to the instructions that come with them I wrote to the manager the other year about them and they refused to tell me where they got them from .. as I pointed out quite calmly that the instructions provided guarantee the death of all CP's....

Hey all, Its been over 2 years since my last post and I thought I would ask you again for a little help and advice.. As an update to my original post http://www.cpukforum...wtopic=41961= ALL THE PLANTS ARE THRIVING LIKE MAD. So again i thank you all for your help in getting me up and running and into the CP world. There is one question i have about my current plants though..... The nepenthes have had seed/flower pods on now for nearly 9months... with no sign of opening or flowering or anything... How long do they usually take??? what can I do to either speed them up or call it a day? Basically before i chop them off i wanted to ask ; A) what are they? seeds or flowers B) is it detrimental to the plant that i leave them/cut them off? Here are some images to show what i mean. Yes this is indeed the same baby plant that was in my original post but all grown up :) Thanks again for any and all help. Karl

As promised here are the pics of some much healthier VFT. I know they still have a long way to go before they are fully recovered. But the new growth is all solid and since I also added 2 x 18W T8 daylight fluorecence tubes to them aswell it seems that after even just a couple of days that the odd trap is gettign hints of red back in them. finally. With all the help from you guys and girls me and the VFT say thankyou. Will let you all know how much better they get after another few weeks and after I trim some of the old dying growth off. Thanks again for saving my plants. Karl

Thanks again to all that gave me advice on this one. Just as an update plants are doing alot better. looking into getting some better wattage lights soon to improove them more. Anyhow will update a before and after pic this weekend to show the improvement. Leaves are alot more healthly now , less spindly and they stand up alot more and are broader. Thanks again for all the advice Karl

ahhh right i might switch the VFTs to the other ones then to give them 40W all together and put the other plants up top. thanks again.

Cheers for that. Rain water I am on with and now all being well enough light should be ok. Hoping to see a big pick up in them accross the next couple of weeks. zeeland - I have 2 X 10W HO T4 TL's in the top about 50ml off the plants Then I have 2 x 20W 6400k CFL's on those lamps you can see. You think that is enough or you think i shoudl risk higher Wattage output. thanks Karl

Will try this new setup and update the pics once a week to see if you think its a good idea. all being well you will have a timeline of some kinda ill looking VFT's to alot of healthy and nicely coloured ones. o well wish me luck. will keep you all updated.. and thanks to those that ID'd my plants too that helped look them up properly Karl

Thanks for that... Its pretty much as i guessed . I thought the VFT's were a bit ill looking. Going to have a bit of a reshuffle and get them under some good lights and take them outside during the best lunch time hours. will just have to take them to work and sit them on my desk all day because as i usually melt in that damn office they will probably love it then. Other than light, do the vft show any signs of other problems... Soil is sphagnumn peat with perlite and a bit of sand.... 1:1:0.5 which i hear allows good healthy roots on them. thanks for all your input. I will shift things about and keep you all updated. fingers crossed i dont loose them all. Karl

Thanks for the link. looked it up and i see what you mean. well in that case then i should be fine i just need to get my lights a little closer i think. Let me know what u think - here are my pics. As you can see they do look a little unhealth do those vft do. Or i dont know my be they dont. but i notice they all have these thin long leaves and everyone elses seem to have broad fat short leaves that lie flat to the floor. So from what i am reading I think it is a lighting problem that hopefully then should fix itself now they have new lights. thanks Karl

yh it seems that most people say that sunlight is about the only thing worth giving them. Need to find a better window to be honest .. or risk cutting a hole in the south wall and hope my landlord doesn't notice taken some pics this morning in some sunlight. so will upload them later once i get them on the comp. hope they seem ok to other CP growers

Unfortunately not... as i said i am in an apartment complex and as such u are looking at my only available SE facing window. This is why i am having to sort out artificial CFL's for them. and most likely since i got the lights today why up till now the plants look a little ill. saving some spare cash to get converting on my old bookcase. so even if its not teranium at least they wil be shelved with proper lighting. Karl

Brilliant thanks for the quick help. I will get some pics uploaded tomorrow and hopefully i can norrow down what i have and see how healthy you think they all seem. Sudden thought.. I know about the VFT dormancy stages and luckily it get naturally that cold near our window sills that they have gone to sleep naturally each year. However can i screw them up by leaving them in 6400k CFL's all the time. do they need a day/night cycle or does it matter? thanks again will get some pics up tomorrow. be interesting to see what you all say. I need to get on top of it all now I have some time to really make this a hobby. Karl

Hey all. Sorry about the openendedness of the topic title but I figured it was most appropriate to post in here since my CP's are currently inside due to being in an apartment complex. I have Venus Flytraps Sundews Pitchers Monkey cups all of which require slightly different environemnts. Currently they are all sat in my windowsill scraping by on the worst UK light available LOL So i am topping them up with 2 CLF's with a 6400k output for a few hours a day. So for the help bit - They all have near zero colour. Alot of the chatter here suggests that is due to the lighting or purely species. Mine were all shop bought as such i dont know the exact species. So i was wanting any advice about trying to get them to look a little healthier. I started with 2 flytraps and am now up to 9 purely from their division every year. So now i really want to take care of my colection better. Would it be alright to mix all my plants up in 1 teranium or will it create the wrong conditions for some of my plants??? Thanks in advance Karl - UK